Africa

Explain tax avoidance reports, ActionAid tells Glencore

Kailash — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:43:13 +0000

ACTIONAID Zambia has challenged Glencore to “clear the air” on tax avoidance allegations in Zambia before embracing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Country representative Pamela Chisanga said Glencore, the owners of Mopani Copper Mine, should not sidetrack from clearing its name on the tax avoidance issues her institution raised last year.

Last week, there were assertions that commodities trader, Glencore, would own up support for a global standard on transparency in natural resources by declaring its support to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

MEPs call for EU to clean up oil, mining industries

Kailash — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:47:55 +0000

The European Parliament has urged EU countries to clean up the mining and oil industries by publishing what companies pay to get their hands on contracts and by giving legal protection to whistleblowers.

The two reports – on financial transparency by German Green MEP Reinhard Butikofer and on safety standards by British Conservative Vicky Ford – were voted through in Strasbourg on Tuesday (13 September).

Ethiopia’s ‘bulldozer’ government arrests 100 tribal people over dam

whit — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:37:32 +0100

Survival has received reports that around one hundred Ethiopian tribespeople have been arrested and jailed for opposing Ethiopia’s controversial Gibe III dam.

Plans for the dam and irrigated land plantations nearby are gathering pace, along with rising repression and intimidation to any opposition.

A policeman reportedly told one indigenous community that the government was, ‘like a bulldozer, and anyone opposing its development projects will be crushed like a person standing in front of a bulldozer.’

Ethiopia is leasing out large tracts of tribal lands in the South Omo region t

Fear Companies Lurking in Dark Financial Shadows

Kailash — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:47:59 +0100

On the face of it, Glencore International AG doesn’t look too scary. With about $80 billion in assets, the Swiss-based commodities trader is a lightweight in comparison to global megabanks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), one of its trading rivals.

African Barrick Says 7 Intruders Shot Dead at Mine; to Probe

Kailash — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:38:39 +0100

African Barrick Gold Plc said police shot dead seven “intruders” at its North Mara mine in Tanzania after hundreds invaded the project armed with machetes, rocks and hammers in the latest fatal confrontation at the site.

Police called to the area “came under sustained attack by approximately 800 criminal intruders who illegally entered the North Mara mine site and attempted to remove ore,” the London- based company said in a statement.

Global gold supremo faces its critics

Kailash — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:34:17 +0100

Indigenous representatives from Porgera, Papua New Guinea, traveled to Canada last week to speak at Barrick Gold’s annual general meeting (AGM).

They were joined by other shareholders who protested at operations by the world’s leading gold company elsewhere around the world.

African Barrick – the company now listed in London and spun off by Barrick (but with the Canadian parent holding the majority of shares)- had its own AGM last week too, although no protestors got inside the meeting.

Barry Sergeant of Mineweb (21 April 2011) had an interesting insight into the escalating costs for

Concessions and counter attack mark Anglo American AGM

Kailash — Tue, 31 May 2011 10:23:05 +0100

It wasn’t all prevarication and pro-crastination at last week’s annual general meeting of London’s third biggest miner, Anglo American.

In response to several law suits and increasing trade union and civil society pressure (as well as press coverage) it announced that it would “assist” former miners who were dying of silicosis caused by their operations.

Statement from the AlterNATIVE Mining Indaba 2011

Kailash — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:31:07 +0100

DECLARATION

We, members of Civil Society, having gathered at the alternative Mining Indaba, in Cape Town on 7th -9th February 2011, comprising faith based organisations, NGOs and community based organisations from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Guatemala, Tanzania, Kenya, Swaziland, Zambia, the Netherlands, Norway, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, hereby label the so-called ‘Official Mining Indaba’ 2011 as a gathering of exploitative profit mongers due to the glaring lack of attention paid to vital elements such as environmental degradation, deepening of poverty, slipp

World Bank’s forest climate fund slammed for sidelining indigenous peoples’ rights and failing to protect forests

whit — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 21:52:07 +0100

DALAT, Vietnam – A new report launched today at the 8th meeting of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) reveals that the Bank is not fulfilling its promises to protect the rights of forest peoples. Smoke and Mirrors: a critical assessment of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility by Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) and FERN exposes the World Bank’s failure to uphold its commitments on human rights and its engagement in never-ending changes to its social and environmental policies, weakening its accountability to affected communities and the public.

Britain backs 'publish what you pay' rule for oil and mining firms in Africa

Kailash — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:27:11 +0000

Britain is throwing its weight behind European efforts to force oil and mining companies to publish details of every penny they pay to governments in poor countries where they operate.

George Osborne told his fellow G20 finance ministers in Paris on Saturday that the coalition was keen to support an effort by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to throw open the operations of the extractive industries in the developing world to public scrutiny.

“As we enter a new decade when the resources of Africa are going to be heavily developed, I strongly believe it’s in everyone’s interests that